Links

Favourite sites and people. More soon:

My good friend and Tai Chi confrèreRichard Napper teaches privately at or near his home in Suffolk. Richard has deep knowledge and great skill in the internal schools of martial arts: he is, for example, a truly peerless push-handsman. If you are in his part of the world and think you might like to train with him, please contact me and I will out you in touch with him.

Several years ago I started teaching Sarah Henderson in the Yang family Long Form: she stayed in the classes for about three years. Now, more than half a decade later, she is widely travelled in Asia and China, and has decided to train in Chen style: the oldest of the Tai Chi family Forms. Just now she is back in Chen Jia Gou, Henan province China, for a fourth extended period of training. As she says: it’s all my fault. So naturally I feel very proud of her!
Chen Zhao Sen is her teacher. Here is her journal: www.chentaiji.me

Ping Amaranand is amongst my oldest friends. Though we see each other seldom these days it was through him and his family that I first came into contact with the East. Ping is a photographer. You can see some of his work, so reflective of his character, here.

Ben Janssens’ Gallery. Beautiful objects, beautifully photographed. A bowl seen here inspired the colours of this website. Go to www.benjanssens.com

Here is a link to the website of my colleague, Daska Hatton. Daska attends my classes regularly, finding the study complementary to her own work. There is indeed much to be explored in the commonality of the Chinese healing/martial arts and the therapies and techniques of the West.

Victoria Threlfall is another of my oldest friends. I love to guide people towards her work. Victoria paints with such modesty; the result being that her subject comes seemingly effortlessly to the surface. See some of her work here.

Taking tea together is an integral part of tim’studio classes. For lovers and explorers in the Way of Tea Kung Fu Cha Tao, there is no better place to visit in London than Postcard Teas, just off Bond Street. Here you will find not only exquisite teas but exceptional tea wares, and the happy expertise of proprietor Tim d’Offay and colleagues. Not to be missed.

For something a little more robust, visit Fernandez & Wells in West Soho, not far away. Co-proprietor JorgeFernandez is a friend (and martial arts colleague in former days). An excellent team prepare delicious savoury and confectionery counter-foods for their knowledgeable local customers… It’s the kind of place you know you will want to go back to, and go back to!

Natacha Ledwidge was among the first of my students and is still, many years on now, committed to her study of Tai Chi and Taoism. Her own work is as an artist. I would particularly like to bring attention to her Visual Medicine programme: there is so much to find, explore and follow here.

Needing a new bed I began to search for something superior to the high-street chain ‘futon’ mattress I had been sleeping on for too many years. Futon World, a family enterprise based in Plymouth UK, provided me with exactly what I was looking for: a superb ‘Futo-latex’ mattress hand-made in Devon and a very handsome ‘tatami’ (the smell is wonderful!) low-to-the-ground base. Personal service from director Peter Farrow was quite simply exemplary.